The Name of the Game: Manipulation
by Christopher C Potter
Summary: I'm not good with summaries. Please read, if you don't like it, you won't have to continue. I'll say this though... Powerful Harry, Intelligent Hermione, Manipulative Dumbledore, Magical Inheritance, Sirius is NOT dead...
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: **_I do not own Harry Potter, lawyers take note, I'm playing in the universe JK Rowling created so lovingly. I do not make any money from this, and I NEVER will. I wrote this to play creatively and for my own enjoyment._

**THE NAME OF THE GAME: MANIPULATION**

**CHAPTER 1**

Dumbledore had always prided himself in being a master manipulator. He had been serving in high-ranking positions for decades now, and truth be told, it made manipulation so much easier. He was Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot.

For the past 15 years, Dumbledore had one single project of manipulation... Harry Potter.

***HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP***

Hermione Granger, always said to be the brightest witch of the age, had turned 17 shortly after starting 6th year at Hogwarts, officially making her an adult in the wizarding world. At the end of 6th year, she accompanied Harry from Kings Cross Station, seeing that his "family" didn't bother to pick him up.

On arrival in Privet Drive, Hermione (now an adult), unobtrusively cast some magical detection charms on the property and its inhabitants. Harry had come to Hermione at Hogwarts after returning for 6th year, and told her of his suspicions. Harry had it in his head that the Dursleys had never been as mean to him as they were during the holidays. He asked her whether she'd be willing to just check it out seeing that he will still be under aged by the time the year ends. Hermione of course agreed, and also agreed not to tell Ron. He may be a good friend, but he will probably shoot his mouth off without thinking. And that is the one thing they didn't want even Dumbledore to find out.

She calmly waited for the charms to settle on Privet Drive. When dinner time came around, she was astounded at what she saw. The charms she used was **_Ostendo sum Veneficus_**and another less known variant to detect more obscure magic, **_Deprehensio Ignotus Veneficus. _**The Dursleys and their house were covered in magic. Hermione had the strangest feeling that she knew the feel of the magic, but pushed that aside quickly as this needed to be dealt with... now.

Hermione nodded to Harry, and she ran through the house at lightning speed casting **_Deprehensio Audio Fabrica _**Charms to check for magical listening bugs. They had learnt their lesson with Rita Skeeter in 4th year, and were not planning on having a repeat performance. Having found several, Hermione cast specialised privacy spells around them rather than deactivating them. They didn't know who the caster was, and didn't want to alert him/her about having found the bugs.

Upon entering the kitchen, Hermione turned to the Dursleys. "Mister Dursley, could we possibly have a word with you about Harry?"  
"Why, has that freak school of yours finally decided that they also had enough of the runt?" Vernon Dursley answered, purple faced and ready to explode.

"No Mister Dursley, we need to tell you a few things that will probably shock you and make you hate us more than you already do however, you need to know this. It is important." Hermione fired back easily, not allowing the walrus look-a-like to intimidate her.  
"Very well then", Vernon answered, "I'll give you 10 minutes, but no longer."

***HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP***

After an hour and a half, Petunia and Dudley were horrified and Vernon (for once), was silent, not even a tinge of purple on his face.

"So what you're saying", Dudley tried to make sense of it all, "Is that we have been controlled with magic since you were put on our doorstep?"  
"Yes, Dudley that is what it seems like." Speaking to the two older Dursleys, Harry decided to beg for just 24 hours under their roof so he could fix this. "Now I understand that right now you don't want us anywhere near you, but if you would allow us house room for just one night, we would very much like to fix this mess."  
"Of course Harry, no need to even ask", Dudley said, "this needs fixing and you're the only ones who can."

Harry relaxed, finding it a bit weird that his cousin was much less affected by the curses that his parents, but decided to take it as a good sign and not to look a gifted horse in the mouth.

Hermione reassured them all, that she is now 17, an adult in the wizarding world, and that she was allowed to use magic. She also promised not to hurt any of the Dursleys and to sort this out as soon as she possibly could.

***HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP***

24 hours later, an extremely irate and fuming Hermione Granger was found reading through the list of curses she found and dismantled.

The Anger Curse (Petunia), The Mad Hatter's Curse, The Fury Curse (Vernon), The Will Bending Curse (Dudley), Anger Focus Curses (All three of them) and what irked Hermione the most, The Imperius Curse, cast on Vernon and Petunia. What gave Hermione hope though, was the **_Relevo Malum _**charm that was also cast. It dampened the urge to do serious harm, and it didn't pass Hermione by that it was cast by someone else.

After all the curses had been lifted, the changes in the Dursleys were very noticeable to put it lightly. They apologised profusely to Harry and Hermione for treating them the way they did and offered them safety and sanctuary whenever they needed it.

Hermione, brightest witch of the age took the chance, and offered to cast the **_Fidelius Charm_** on the house and Harry offered to be secret keeper. They jumped at the chance and Hermione apparated home straight out of the living room to get the books (predictable much?) she needed.

Within the hour, she was back with her Hogwarts trunk filled to the brim with clothes, books and everything else she may need for her stay at number 4 Privet Drive. Two hours later, knowledge of the house had disappeared from everyone's heads. It was official, only 5 people knew of the place, and that in itself, put Vernon, Petunia and Dudley's minds at ease.

They spent the night in the living room talking about everything and anything. The apologies kept coming from the Dursleys, and time and time again Harry waved them off. They didn't do it because they wanted to. They did it because someone manipulated them. Harry had never been happier in his life, and Hermione was proud to be who she was (brightest witch of the age and all that), and even more proud that Harry chose her to be his friend.

***HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP*HP***

Minerva McGonagall sat thinking about everything and anything, enjoying a cup of tea. Her favourite student, Harry, had been on her mind the last few days. She remembered all too well the day she went to check on him when Harry was still an infant. How she found all those horrible curses cast on the Dursleys and how she regretted never being able to remove them. The fear of being discovered trying to remove the curses, regretfully not knowing enough about the curses and the fact that the Dursleys were incredibly hostile towards her. 'What was their address again?' she thought to herself, for the life of her she just couldn't remember. The thought had barely passed through her mind, when she was practically accosted by a white fluffy thing that hooted and screeched and was either very excited or scared half to death. After managing to calm down the owl, she realised it was Hedwig and immediately took the piece of paper from the owl. The note barely in her hands, Hedwig shot through the window and flew off at top speed. 'That was bizarre' she thought as she opened the piece of paper. Scrawled in the very untidy handwriting of Harry Potter were the words:

**_"The Potter Safe House can be found at number 4 Privet Drive, Surrey"._**

Minerva shook her head and smiled. She smelled a rat or two, and that rat wasn't Pettigrew and co... No no no, that rat, or rather rats, were definitely Hermione Granger and Harry Potter.

She got up, grabbed her travelling cloak, and ran out of the castle. Reaching the anti-apparition wards' end, she popped away.

**A/N: I fixed all of the spelling and grammar mistakes I could see, as English is not my first language, I truly am sorry if I subject your eyes to some less than stellar writing.**

**PLEASE READ AND REVIEW... I WELCOME IT WITH OPEN ARMS!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hi everyone... Sorry about taking so long to update, and also for the short update. I'm in the middle of my year-end exams, so I'm kinda busy, but decided to write this Interlude and publish it to at least try and keep you guys interested in the story. Updates will be a bit slow initially, but as soon as my exams are finished, it'll be much quicker.**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own anything, and I'm still not making money. Just playing in JK Rowling's beautiful world that she so lovingly created, and borrowing some characters for a while. :-)  
**

**CHAPTER 2**

Minerva McGonagall appeared in Privet Drive with a loud crack. She had never managed to do it with a pop like others do, but she couldn't care less right now. She practically ran towards her destination, number 4 slowly appearing magically on the street.

She knocked on the door, barely containing her happiness. She just knew things were better now. The hum of new magic caressed her core and almost made her purr like the cat animagus she is.

The door flew open and she found herself staring at two wands. Taken completely by surprise, she just kept very still and tried calming her heart, beating 700 miles a minute.

"How did I manage to get accepted onto the Quidditch team in my first year, and how did you contribute to that?" Harry asked immediately.  
"You disobeyed direct orders from Madam Hooch, got on your broom and saved Mister Longbottom's Rememberall, after which I took you to Oliver Wood and introduced him to his new seeker. I contributed to that by getting you a state of the art broom, a Nimbus 2000, the broom in question was smashed by the whomping willow in your third year during the Hufflepuff-Gryffindor game after you were attacked by Dementors." Minerva answered without skipping a beat. "Now", she pulled her wand and trained it on Harry faster than Harry thought was possible, "How did you manage to best your transfiguration professor in your first year?" she asked.  
"I didn't best you, Ronald Weasley did. On our way to rescue the Philosopher's Stone, we encountered your giant chess set, where Ronald Weasley managed to kick some Transfiguration Professor's butt." Harry grinned at Minerva.

Security done (so tedious, yet so necessary), Minerva quickly entered into the house. "Oh Harry! I cannot begin to tell you how happy this made me!" She practically squealed like a little school girl. "Of course I had hopes that you never found out what that crazy old man did, but alas, you did. Should have known you would you nosy little boy!"

"Uhm... Professor, what crazy old man are you talking about?" Harry carefully asked, he had his suspicions but he still wasn't sure.  
"Don't play dumb Mister Potter, it's very unbecoming", Minerva snapped, "You know perfectly well who I'm talking about."  
"Yeah, I think I do. I'm not playing dumb, Professor, I'm simply trying to give him the benefit of the doubt." Harry said.  
"Now mister Potter, you can trust me when I say this, giving that man the benefit of the doubt will do nothing but give him leverage to keep you under his thumb. He will play a game so intricate that you will not be able to distinguish between truth and lies. If I were you, I'd do away with the niceties, and write him off for now. At least until this is all over. My question to you Mister Potter is simple... What are you going to do about this? How are you going to go about keeping this under wraps until such a time that an opportunity presents itself to reveal this?"

Harry stared at his professor. He had no idea. Not even half an idea. Not even a spark. Hermione however had a solution at the ready. And it was simple.

"Professor", Hermione began, "when Harry came to me with his request, I decided not to leave a single stone unturned. I quite literally ransacked big parts of the castle after finding a very enlightening book under the floor boards under one of the shelves in the Restricted Section in the Library. Don't ask me how or why I decided to look there, I don't know, I just felt a pull towards it and ta-da, there it was. This book was not your standard library book. I'll go over the details another time, but let's just say that this book took me on a wonderful tour through the castle. I know some of the secrets Hogwarts holds, probably not all of them, but enough to rival Dumbledore's knowledge of the castle. Imagine my surprise, when I open a door in Trelawney's class that has never been seen before and find myself facing a tapestry the size of Monte Vesuvio hanging on the opposite wall. And after careful investigation, I can promise you that the information the tapestry holds is explosive – and that's putting it mildly."

Hermione took a much needed breath before plunging right back in.

"I will tell you everything I know professor, and I'll substantiate the tales with cold hard evidence, but regarding my Modus Operandi ala Potter, you'll have no input and you can do nothing to change my mind. I know Harry trusts me, and the reason I haven't let that particular cat out of the bag is because Hogwarts has ears. And all those ears report to the Oh-so-Revered Bumblepork."

She relayed her MO ala P to Minerva, getting both disapproving and praiseworthy expressions from the Deputy Headmistress, but nothing more than that. She knew she had covered all the bases as well as she could, and even though Minerva disapproved on some parts, she couldn't fault Hermione on her genius.

While Hermione was talking, Harry just sat dumbstruck at what he was hearing and the Dursleys even more so. They couldn't believe what they were hearing. Of course they wouldn't be telling anyone anything, as they'd be chucked into the funny farm quicker than a bullet can pierce a target.


End file.
